Canto d’Orfeo

Delphine Galou was born in Paris. In addition to her studies of the piano and singing, she also studied philosophy at the Sorbonne.
 
She specialises in the Baroque repertoire, collaborating with ensembles such as the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, I Barocchisti, Accademia Bizantina, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, Les Siècles, Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert des Nations, Ensemble Matheus, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Ambassadeurs and Les Talens Lyriques.
 
Her extensive discography includes e.g. Vivaldi’s operas Teuzzone, conducted by Jordi Savall, and Orlando, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli, Vivaldi’s opera L’incoronazione di Dario and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, conducted by Ottavio Dantone, Steffani’s opera Niobe, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock, and Caldara’s serenata La Concordia de’ Pianeti under the baton of Andrea Marcon.
 
On September 2018 her CD “Agitata”, recorded with Accademia Bizantina, won the Gramophone Award as best recital of the year.

Since it was founded in 1997, the Prague ensemble Collegium Marianum has focused on presenting the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially by composers who were born or active in central Europe. One of the few professional ensembles specialising in this field in the Czech Republic, Collegium Marianum not only gives musical performances, but regularly also stages scenic projects.
 
The ensemble works under the artistic leadership of the traverso player Jana Semerádová who also regularly appears as a soloist with some of the most eminent European orchestras. Her active research, together with her study of Baroque gesture, declamation, and dance, has enabled Semerádová to broaden the artistic profile of the Collegium Marianum ensemble from a purely musical focus to multi-genre projects featuring Baroque dance and theatre. This background also informs her unique, thematic programming, which has resulted in a number of modern-day premieres. The ensemble works closely with renowned soloists (Hana Blažíková, Simona Houda-Šaturová, Roberta Mameli, Raffaele Pe, Chantal Santon Jeffery, etc.) and has carried out projects with leading conductors and directors (e.g. Andrew Parrott, Rudolf Lutz, Benjamin Lazar, and Jean-Denis Monory). Its artistic collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles has produced dramaturgically extraordinary projects involving French Baroque music and dance (such as Michel-Richard de Lalande’s Grands Motets), including modern premieres. Collegium Marianum also presents original projects with the Buchty a loutky puppet theatre company (for example Francesco Cavalli’s Calisto and Georg Frideric Handel’s Acis and Galatea).
 
Collegium Marianum has received critical acclaim both at home and abroad. The ensemble has appeared extensively on Czech Radio and TV as well as on radio abroad. The performances of the ensemble at music festivals and prestigious venues, including Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Händel-Festspiele in Halle, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Bachfest Leipzig, Festival de Sablé, Klangvokal Dortmund, Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona), Prague Spring, St. Wenceslas Music Festival, and Concentus Moraviae, have met with great success. For the Händel-Festspiele in Halle festival in 2023, Collegium Marianum prepared a stage performance of Handel’s opera Alessandro Severo.
 
In 2008, the ensemble started successful cooperation with the Supraphon label, which has already released ten of its recordings of music by well-known and lesser-known composers, such as Jan Dismas Zelenka, František Jiránek, Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, and Josef Antonín Sehling as part of their “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” series. In 2022, the CD “A Lily Among Thorns” with Hana Blažíková was nominated for the Anděl Awards.
 
Collegium Marianum is the ensemble in residence of the Summer Festivities of Early Music international festival. In January 2010, it received the merit award for the quality and dissemination of Czech music from the Czech section of the International Music Council of UNESCO.

One of the most prominent personalities of the international early music scene, flautist Jana Semerádová is a world-class soloist, conductor, musicologist and creator of unique artistic projects. A graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague (Theory and Practice of Early Music), and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, the Netherlands, she is also a laureate of the Magdeburg and Munich international competitions.
 
Jana Semerádová is the artistic director of Collegium Marianum and programming director of the concert cycle Baroque Soirées and the international music festival Summer Festivities of Early Music. She undertakes intensive archival research both at home and abroad and is engaged in ongoing study of Baroque gesture, declamation and dance. Many of her unique programmes are built around the interconnection of music and drama. Under her direction, Collegium Marianum stages several contemporary premieres of musical works each year. Jana Semerádová has a number of CDs to her name; her recordings with Collegium Marianum are featured as part of the successful series “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” on the Supraphon label, for which she has also recorded her two signature CDs “Solo for the King” and “Chaconne for the Princess”.
 
Jana Semerádová has performed at leading European concert venues and festivals (such as Bachfest Leipzig, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Händel-Festspiele in Halle, Festival de Sablé, Prague Spring, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Wratislavia Cantans, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and Berlin, and Palau de la Música Catalana), collaborated as a soloist with various artists, including Magdalena Kožená, Sergio Azzolini, Alfredo Bernardini, and Enrico Onofri, and regularly performs with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Il Suonar Parlante, Wrocławska Orkiestra Barokowa, Orkiestra Historyczna and Ars Antiqua Austria.
 
In 2015 she received her habilitation degree as an associate professor of flute from the Faculty of Music and Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Since 2024, she has been teaching at the Kryszstof Penderiecki Academy of Music in Kraków.
 
In 2019 she was awarded the prize of the Prague Group of the Society for Arts and Sciences. A year later, Jana Semerádová and Erich Traxler were nominated for the Anděl Awards (category Classics) for their CD “Chaconne for the Princess”. In December 2024, Jana Semerádová was awarded the prestigious French Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres), at the grade of Knight (Chevalier).

Lenka Torgersen studied violin at the Pilsen Conservatory and subsequently at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Václav Snítil. After graduating she focused intensively on Baroque violin and honed her skills at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Chiara Banchini.
 
Lenka Torgersen is the concert master of Collegium Marianum. From 1999 to 2012 she was the concert master of Collegium 1704; currently she also works regularly with other Czech and international ensembles including La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Ensemble 415, Freitagsakademie (Bern), Ensemble Inégal, and others. As a chamber musician and soloist she performs at major European stages and music festivals and also collaborates with various leading figures in early music (e.g. René Jacobs, Andrea Marcon, Jordi Savall, Andrew Parrott).
 
In 2010 as a soloist with Collegium 1704 she recorded the works of Antonín Reichenauer, for which she received the Diapason d’Or award. In 2013 she recorded a solo CD “Il Violino Boemo” (Supraphon), a modern-day premiere reviving the sonatas of the 18th century Czech violin virtuosi.
 
From 2008 to 2011 she taught Baroque violin at Charles University in Prague and from 2018 to 2022 at the Faculty of Music of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno. She is a regular lecturer and teacher in the field of historical performance practice and Baroque violin in the international master classes of the Akademie Versailles and courses organised by the Collegium Marianum Foundation.